


F is for Fathers

by chileancarmenere



Series: Alistair Alphabet [6]
Category: Dragon Age
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-02-02
Updated: 2012-02-02
Packaged: 2017-10-30 12:40:51
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/331837
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chileancarmenere/pseuds/chileancarmenere





	F is for Fathers

People who actually know the secret and knew his real father say he’s like Maric. He constantly cracks jokes - which _some_ people deem unfunny - and he looks very similar to him. Alistair has only ever seen portraits of Maric, and portraits are always made to look flattering, so he doesn’t know if there’s any real resemblance. He knows that he does look like Cailan, something that doesn’t please him at all. It would have been better for Ferelden as a whole if he had been born resembling his mother.

 He resents Maric. Alistair views it as a weakness; Maric should not have stooped so low as to father a bastard. Everyone knows that bastards are frequently judged for their parents’ sins, and royal bastards are doubly so. Everyone who knows that he is Maric’s son treats him differently for it; some of them are kind, but coddle him. Some of them actively resent him, as though apparently he could help being born a spare heir. In his heart, he disowns Maric. Maric never wanted him, so Alistair doesn’t see why he has to pretend to any family ties with the man.

 For his childhood, Eamon acted like a second father. When he learned the truth about his parentage, Eamon was good to him. When Alistair sometimes screamed and raged at the unfairness of his station, Eamon would sit with him for hours. Even if Alistair abused him to his face (though, to be fair, his nine-year-old idea of a cutting remark is “poopy-face”) Eamon would stay steadfast through it all, and be ready to comfort him when the storm blew over. Eventually, Alistair learned to trust him again.

 That trust was broken when Eamon sent him to the Chantry. He knew that there was a variety of reasons for it. They might even be good reasons. But in his ten-year-old mind, Alistair saw nothing but that his second father has turned on him. Eamon came to visit him at the Chantry, but Alistair turned to the wall, blind and deaf to him, and eventually Eamon stopped coming. When he was old enough, Alistair regretted his hasty behavior, but by then it was far too late.

 It takes months before he overcomes his tight-lipped awe of Duncan, and when he does, he never loses his admiration and respect for the man. Duncan takes Alistair under his wing and trains him in varied methods of combat, teaches him old Grey Warden lore, opens his mind to all the wild and wonderful things in the world. Alistair has never before known this unconditional acceptance. He has a brotherhood; every Grey Warden would die for another. And he has Duncan, a man who is his _real_ father; the only blood they share is taint, which isn’t what most people would call a blood connection, but he is the family that Alistair chooses.

 When he wakes up to the Witch of the Wilds bending over him, asking _can you stand_ and _do you feel better now_ and when he says _yes I do, but what…_ she says _brace yourself for bad news_ and that is when he knows how people who lose everything feel.


End file.
